45 acp

[What The Chuck]

HI everyone, I have been loading 45 ACP with a lee 451-230-1r cast mould with # 2 alloy, 4 grns of HTG and an OAL of 1.265. This has been working well in all my 45's ie colt mod.70 high point pistol and carbine. I bought a new XDM 5.25 bi tone and am having problems with the OAL. It seems the bullet is not seated deep enough to allow the slide to close properly and extraction is difficult if not impossible when cycled by hand. Does anyone think I would have pressure problems if I shortened the OAL to 1.240. I loaded a couple of dummy test rounds and they seem to be cycling well at that length,TIA Chuck.

[Blammer]

should have no pressure issues.

[plainsman456]

Like was said it should be no problem.

I have had to do the same with a few other pistols.

[geargnasher]

As you've discovered, that isn't one of the better Lee designs for .45 automatics, but you're making it work. Titegroup can be sensitive to slight depth adjustments and you are right to use caution when making adjustments to the load, but your loads are fairly mild and you have plenty of margin for safety. When in doubt, back to the minimum to make your depth adjustment and work back up.

Gear

[Jupiter7]

Never got that bullet or the 228 to work over 1.23. Pretty common issue it seems.

[Echo]

I wonder if the XDM has a short chamber - maybe the round is jamming it's mouth into the origin, causing hard extraction. Easy to measure w/dial calipers...

[pdawg_shooter]

Ran into the same problem with my Sig P220. My Colt loads were a bit too long and would sometimes stick the bullet in the barrel when ejecting a live round. This was with a Lee 230gr (actually the weight with ACCOWWs is 240gr) RNFP. Dropped the charge weight of AA #5 .50gr, seated the bullet a bit deeper and problem solved.

[MtGun44]

See if TC tighter may help, too. I agree that .025 deeper with a 45 ACP will not do too
much on increasing pressure.

Bill

[geargnasher]

The Lee 230 TC is a great boolit for the plastic pistols which all seem to have just about zero throat. I've run into the lack of throat with Glocks, M&Ps, XDs, and SIGs as well.

Gear

[trixter]

Just seat it deeper till it starts functioning properly. I had the same problems with mine and I was stymied and then I seated it deeper and found the sweet spot. I have since gone to the TL 200 SWC and have had no problems at all.

[KYShooter73]

I've had the same problem with the Lee round nose in .45 and 9mm. Seating it shorter will work just fine, but it is definately a short throat issue. Take it to a good gunsmith and have the throat reamed a bit. Here's a good video explaining the issue.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=D8qPel2nEy4

[Tatume]

Field strip the gun, drop a cartridge into the chamber, and put the tip of your index finger on the breech and feel how far into the barrel the cartridge went. If it is above the breech, seat the bullet deeper. If it is flush or slightly below, the bullet is seated deep enough to function. The problem is elsewhere.

[ku4hx]

This boolit is the reason I went to the Lee TL 230 grain TC. Once I did, the usual attention to cartridge OAL and neck diameter was all that was needed to get proper, easy chambering.